New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 115 



trouble to the extent of at least a leaf or two. In several in- 

 stances, apparently from one-fourth to three-fourths of the 

 leaves were already dead. Fields thus affected showed notice- 

 able injury even from a considerable distance. 



Close by an affected field, or sometimes even contiguous to it, 

 might be found a field showing the trouble only to a very slight 

 degree. This may have been due to a longer culture of the 

 rhubarb upon one than upon the other area. 



An affected leaf breaks off readily just beneath the surface of 

 the ground, and it was found that dead or prostrate leaves had 

 rotted off in this region. The general appearance reminded one 

 strongly of the effect of Rhizoctonia upon beets. There was very 

 little superficial mycelium visible to the unaided eye. Micro- 

 scopic examination showed hyphae of a Rhizoctonia both super- 

 ficially, and also immediately under the surface where the leaves 

 were rotting. No other fungus was at any time found abun- 

 dantly associated with the disease, and the Rhizoctonia was quite 

 constantly present. 



ON ORNAMENTAL ASPARAGUS. 



{Asparagus sprcngeri.) 



In May, 1900, a florist on Long Island called our attention to 

 dead patches in a large bench of Asparagus sprengeri in one of his 

 greenhouses. The plants were dead and the leaves, which were 

 gray and dry, had a tendency to cling to each other. Closer 

 observation showed that the leaves were bound together with 

 brown threads which proved to be Rhizoctonia hyphae. The dis- 

 ease seemed to be unimportant, being confined to small areas 

 where the foliage was kept unduly wet by the dripping of water 

 from the glass above. The roots of the affected plants were not 

 examined. Pure cultures of the fungus have been secured. 



Knowing that, in Europe, the garden asparagus, A. officinalis, 

 is affected by a Rhizoctonia^ root-rot we visited Mattituck, Long 

 Island, for the purpose of searching for the Rhizoctonia in the 

 extensive asparagus fields of that locality. Owing to unfavor- 



^ Rhizoctonia violacea TuL 



